The Island
2nd Edition
Published on 21. April 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
112 pages
978-1-78463-403-2 (ISBN)
Description
It begins as an ordinary day of frayed nerves and suburban fractiousness. Following a sharp argument with his wife, Graham sets out across London with his young daughter, Jasmine. It is a journey born of a need for space - on the surface, a simple drive to clear the air.
But as they move through the city, the familiar begins to feel inexplicably foreign.
The motorways are tightening. The air is changing. On every screen, in every shop window, a recurring image of a remote island haunts the broadcast - an image that pulls Graham back toward a childhood he has tried to outrun.
As the horizon darkens and the path home becomes increasingly uncertain, Graham is forced to navigate the shifting boundary between a father's protective instinct and a world that is rapidly losing its grip on the known.
The Island is a devastatingly controlled novella from one of the UK's finest poets. It is a story of what remains when the structures of the everyday fall away: the memories we cannot escape, and the desperate, quiet love between a father and his child.
But as they move through the city, the familiar begins to feel inexplicably foreign.
The motorways are tightening. The air is changing. On every screen, in every shop window, a recurring image of a remote island haunts the broadcast - an image that pulls Graham back toward a childhood he has tried to outrun.
As the horizon darkens and the path home becomes increasingly uncertain, Graham is forced to navigate the shifting boundary between a father's protective instinct and a world that is rapidly losing its grip on the known.
The Island is a devastatingly controlled novella from one of the UK's finest poets. It is a story of what remains when the structures of the everyday fall away: the memories we cannot escape, and the desperate, quiet love between a father and his child.
Reviews / Votes
There is not a superfluous word, a slipshod phrase or a forced or obtrusive simile in the book ... laconic Poundian description ... the most involving novel I have read since Veronique Olmi's Beside the Sea. -- David Rose * Warwick Review *More details
Edition
2nd New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 129 mm
Width: 198 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
108 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78463-403-2 (9781784634032)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Richard Price has published over a dozen books of poetry since his debut in 1993, including Lucky Day (2005), which was a Guardian Book of the Year and shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Prize. In 2013 Small World won the Creative Scotland Award for the Best Poetry Collection of that year. It was followed by another Guardian Book of the Year, Moon for Sale (2017). The Owner of the Sea (2021), re-telling Inuit stories, was a Scotsman Book of the Year. In the words of the poet Peter McCarey his poetry 'goes to work on all the major events of our small lives.' More recent works include Late Gifts, a braided work which ties consumerism's interaction with the environment to a narrative of a middle-aged father and his son. For over thirty years he was a curator and then manager of curators at the British Library, before becoming a freelance writer in 2024. He is a tutor at the Poetry School, London.